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Is it just me or does it seem like I'm replacing car tires more often?


PrincessMommy
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I'll be honest and I don't keep the best track, but once again I'm looking to replace tires. It seems like it's happening way sooner than I think it should.   I thought it was just me and the way I treat tires.  It also doesn't help that we have multiple cars.

 

but, I go onto tire review sites and discover it seems to be a common complaint across brands.  Tires that advertise that they go 90K or even 70K are barely making it to 50k, and some less than 40K!!    However, it seems like people who are apt to review are those with complaints... so maybe it's skewed in the negative.

 

What says the hive?  

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I am about to replace my tires after 2 years on my Suburban.  I don't know the mileage but there's no way it's been 70k miles.  So yeah, I'm annoyed; they weren't cheap ones, so now I'm wondering what's the point of supposedly higher-quality.  This will be at least the third set of new tires in 6.5 years.

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I always get my tires at one particular place. When I need new tires, I go back to them. Last time, my tires needed to be replaced before the warranty miles had been reached. I received a prorated credit against the new tires. The guy told me the tire company might request proof that I had rotated them regularly. My oil change place does free rotations, so I don't go to the tire store to have that done, although they would do it for free. 

 

We have notoriously bad roads here, so it doesn't surprise me that they wear more quickly. 

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I might not be the right one to ask. We put two new tires on DH's vehicle every single year since he commutes almost 30K miles a year. About every three years, we have to replace all four tires. (We have had the vehicle just over seven years; it's twelve years old and has 245K miles. We have replaced all four tires twice.). We do buy the highest mileage tires we can, but mechanics have told me that you really only get about 3/4 of the miles they claim you will get. I think we put a slightly higher rated tire on them this year (all four), and I am seriously hoping that it's only two that have to be replaced next year. (His mileage has gone down a bit in the last two years because he can work from home sometimes, which saves 90 miles and several dollars in gas, plus 90 minutes of sleep.)

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With recommended annual balancing and rotation I've gotten the full life out of my past set of tires.  That is the first set where I was vigilant, and the others did not last their full life.  I guess it does make a difference! 

 

Yes, that's what I thought.  But all the reviewers claim they also rotated religiously and still got terrible wear on their tires.

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I am about to replace my tires after 2 years on my Suburban.  I don't know the mileage but there's no way it's been 70k miles.  So yeah, I'm annoyed; they weren't cheap ones, so now I'm wondering what's the point of supposedly higher-quality.  This will be at least the third set of new tires in 6.5 years.

 

yes, exactly my experience.  I've decided to go with a bit cheaper tires because I don't see the point. 

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Tires have an expiration date because the rubber degrades even if they aren't installed on a car. Maybe some of you have bought "new" tires that had been sitting around a warehouse for a few years. There is supposed to be some way to check the age of the tires, like a code on the side.

 

That's interesting. I wonder if Michelin unloaded some "old" tires this way. Our last set only lasted about half the mileage it's supposed to and the tire guy said that was a common problem with that particular version of Michelins (sorry, can't remember what line we used). Up until then, with going in for regular alignments and rotations, we got the mileage it was supposed to get. But this last set just didn't make it even though we didn't change our tire care habits nor did our driving habits/locations change.

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I don't know for sure, but I suspect the mileage claims are based on almost all interstate driving, which is much kinder to tires than city driving with lots of starts and stops and turns.  DH drives about 32 miles to work, with about 30 of those being interstate miles.  When we do most of our other driving in my car, his tires usually last at least as long as estimated.  My car gets most of its miles in town or on back roads, and the tires never last as long as estimated.

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With recommended annual balancing and rotation I've gotten the full life out of my past set of tires.  That is the first set where I was vigilant, and the others did not last their full life.  I guess it does make a difference! 

 

 

balancing, rotation, and proper inflation for conditions are key.  and a good balance job over a poor or even average one.  there was one place we went to a few times - and they did a lovely computer print out showing exactly what they did and how everything was now nicely balanced.  but the driver's front tire would repeatedly wear and have to be replaced. . . . (and there were a few places going uphill, i'd scrape the ground).

 

then dh took my car to a place that specialized in high end cars. worth every penny.  they take the weight of the most frequent occupants and where they sit in the car into account as part of their adjustment.  iow: it's balanced when people are actually IN the car, as opposed to empty.  world of difference, and I haven't scraped teh ground since.  and my tires have more life.

he was so happy with it - he took his car in.

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YES!  It is one of the biggest irritants about cars.  We have had two blow outs on our camper with only two year old tires - and not cheap ones.  And my Tahoe's tires are about to need it again.  And I swear we JUST replaced them all!  In this day, they should make better quality tires.  I think they make them cheap on purpose - make more money.

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Tires have an expiration date because the rubber degrades even if they aren't installed on a car. Maybe some of you have bought "new" tires that had been sitting around a warehouse for a few years. There is supposed to be some way to check the age of the tires, like a code on the side.

 

We've replaced tires due to age rather than wear. We have a beater car that we only drive in town and I fill it up with gas about 8 times a year so it doesn't wear out tires very fast. 

 

This summer we visited my inlaws and dh and I had a new tire put on FIL's 1983 truck.  It was an original tire. He has about 45,000 miles on the truck and the tire finally blew. Of course he wouldn't let us replace the other three...

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We replaced our last pair sooner than expected BUT the past two winters have been exceptionally difficult in these parts.  And those two difficult winters means that the roads have been thrashed. By March of last year I knew that I was going to have to replace the tires when spring came. There was just no way they could handle two years of that kind of wear, with all the salt and slush and getting stuck, and rough roads etc.

 

And I agree that balancing and rotating and inflation is very important. We are good about keeping them properly inflated, but we rarely rotate them or anything.  We hardly ever change the oil either, lol.  So we really have no one but ourselves to blame.

 

I keep thinking we should get snow tires, but it seems like such a pain.

 

Have I mentioned that we are extraordinarily bad at staying on top of those sorts of irregular chores?  I mean reaaaaaallllly bad.

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I replaced tires today that came with our 2008 exterra. We drive carefully and take it easy on the corners and rotate and check air pressure. Those things matter. I thought that we did pretty good, getting 86k out of 40k tires. When I bought I paid more for more rubber. I hope that makes them last longer. :-)

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